Pandora
by darkshiptrash
Summary: Pandora Malfoy-Lovegood's life was not a tragedy, but still a bitter one.


_Title: Pandora_

_[Main Prompt] Pandora Lovegood_

_[Side Prompt] Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy_

_Wordcount: 2787_

_School: Hogwarts_

_Year: Three_

_Side Note: _It is set_ in an Alternate Universe. So be warned of any major changes. _

Theme: Motive for not being accepted

Pandora Malfoy disliked wedding ceremonies. Well, she didn't actually loathe them on the principle that they were wedding ceremonies, but simply because most weddings she had been to were previously arranged and talked through before the wedding eventually even took place. Her brother's wedding was no different. But at the very least he looked dashing and handsome in those fancy wedding robes they had forced on him, his smile well practiced.

Pandora wondered how many years this marriage would take before it would turn him into their father, for there were times even now she would look at him and see their father instead—a man who had never stopped reminding her that it was she who had taken her mother's life when she had been born into this world. Pandora thought her father would have switched her life for her mother's if he could, for a daughter was not worth dying for in a family like their own. She wasn't a son—a spare he could turn to instead when Lucius would eventually disappoint him. She blamed her father for many things in this life, but not for wishing to switch her for her mother. She wished she had died then too.

Abraxas Malfoy stiffened against her, his permanent frown deeply etched onto his wrinkled face. "Pandora," He whispered, his eyes going down her feet. "Pray tell me where are your shoes, daughter mine?"

"I hate shoes. They are utterly uncomfortable to wear and I cannot for the life of me understand why anybody forces one on themselves." Pandora explained, thanking Salazar that they were in a very public place and not in the security of their own home where he would be free to punish as he saw fit. That wasn't to say he still wouldn't punish her for her daring to appear to a wedding her father considered of the utmost importance in such a state, but she still had enough time to make her escape. Maybe she wouldn't turn up back home, after all. Maybe she would have Xenophilius assist her in her plan to escape her wretched father. He always did appear as if he was genuinely taken aback by her—by everything she was and everything she would soon be. Maybe she would ask him to marry her, to take her away from this awful place into the safety of his arms.

It was a very nice thing to dream of. Though the chances were she would end up marrying Rabastan Lestrange instead; Rabastan who was tall, dark and handsome and who said many wicked things in her ear that sent shivers through her spine, but who was nevertheless a very wicked man who would probably sell his soul to someone like Voldemort if he could.

Even the mere thought of the war, of the things happening outside of the manor walls, was enough for her breath to get caught in her throat, for her to have to struggle to stop herself from bursting down and crying like some hormonal pregnant woman in a public place, as her father would undoubtedly say if she were to actually make a fool of herself right now.

Suddenly, all of these celebrations and people running around the place like there was nothing out of the ordinary happening, as if there weren't people being cruelly murdered right then, made her feel as if somebody had punched her in the gut. But they cared not—as long as the people who fell dead in the streets weren't pureblooded aristocratic members of their society, they would never care.

"Pandora, smile. Remember you are attending a wedding ceremony, not a bloody funeral," Her father whispered, which made Pandora offer her father a small, somewhat tight, totally forced smile. "That's better."

At the very least, despite all the things that she could think of to ruin this day even more for her, she thought Narcissa Black (now Malfoy) looked positively stunning in her ceremonial white gown, her pretty blond hair tied around her head in a small, fancy bun. At the very least, her darling brother had a family he could come back to after a tiring day at work now.

Pandora caught Lucius's eye across the hallway. 'Are you happy?' She asked via their bond; a silly little thing they had done when they were still children, who were not willing to part from another. So, they had formed a blood bond; a bond that would enable them to fully know what the other was thinking and feeling. It might have been a mistake. If their father found out what they had done, they wouldn't hear the end of it. Thank Merlin he remained blind still to what they had done that summer in '65.

'Yes, Pan. I am most happy,' was his answer; short and so devoid of anything to indicate how he truly felt about this whole event. It was so very Lucius. Pandora smiled and let her shoulders drop in relaxation, an actually genuine smile crossing her lips for the first time that day, closing her blue eyes shut.

"I am the most happy."

* * *

It wasn't quite long after the wedding that her brother's pretty little pureblood wife got pregnant. "I want to name him Scorpius," Narcissa had said, all warm smiles and delighted eyes.

It didn't take long for Narcissa to lose the child.

It was a warm summer day in late July when Lucius came back home with shaking shoulders and a shattered look on his face that absolutely broke her heart into pieces. _It's my fault, I should've been there,_ those words kept ringing in her head like a never ending broken mixtape, repeating and repeating and all Pandora could do at that moment where her brother appeared far more broken than he ever was, was to hold him tight and let him cry. _It's my fault that my son died. I should have been there._

* * *

The funeral was held a week after, the space filled with many family members Pandora didn't even know the names of.

Pandora's heart heaved with each second for the nephew she had lost, for the nephew she would never get to know. It was a fact that felt much heavier that day than it had the other day when Lucius had come crying to her. That day, it hadn't felt quite real, almost as if it was something she was reading in a book, but had nothing to do with her reality at all. But now, standing above the grave that had her dead nephew's name etched onto it in fancy, yet simple letters, it all felt very much real.

There was cousin Katerina expressing her furthermost apologies to Lucius who merely nodded his head as his wife clung to him like the fragile little thing she was; crying her eyes out as they buried an empty grave with her son's name etched onto it. Narcissa's crazed sister Bellatrix had come and Pandora couldn't help but to wonder if the other woman had had something to drink before she came. After all, she did sound rather pissed. But then again, maybe Bellatrix always sounded like that. She wouldn't know. She knew literally nothing about Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix's husband Rodolphus, a tall and cruel looking man with a slight, barely visible scar on top of his left eyebrow, tried to drag his wife away with a growl after the woman almost made Narcissa cry even harder.

"Bellatrix!" he said, looking frustrated with his wife.

"Why do you have to be so cruel, Bellatrix?" Andromeda Tonks, who had only come per her sister's request cried out in anger for her sister's agony, dark eyes glaring back at her twin sister in the deep frustration. "Have you no heart?"

"Who asked you here, Andy?" Bellatrix almost sounded bored, rolling her eyes rather dramatically as if she couldn't understand why they were making such a big deal out of this. At that moment, Pandora had to wonder what tragedy had to have happened to make Bellatrix Lestrange steel her heart in such a way, to not even allow her own sister a moment of empathy. "You don't belong here, in this family."

Regulus Black, a tall and beautiful boy with artistic features not unlike his older brother's stiffened beside her, gulping down his throat in slight fear.

She pitied Bellatrix Lestrange. For to live not knowing any kindness, that was the worst way to live one's life.

"I think it's time for you to leave, Bella," Narcissa Malfoy told her dark-haired sister with a determination, with a strength she wouldn't have thought she possessed. It seemed that she had misjudged the older witch. She was far stronger than she appeared. "You've outstayed your welcome here."

Bellatrix left with her husband as per her sister's request, scoffing unpleasantly as she talked in a whisper to her dark-haired husband, apparating into nothingness.

Andromeda Tonks stepped closer to her sister, supporting her weight with the help of Pandora's brother, her eyes soft and filled with more kindness than Pandora had ever seen in anyone before. "Narcissa, come, let's get you home." She turned her head sharply to the slightly tall, dark-haired boy standing by his brother's side, all boyish features and youthful smiles.

"Sirius! Regulus! What are you two standing there for? Come, help! Get those legs moving! You do know how to move them, don't you?"

"Andy, are you quite certain you should have handled her like that?" Regulus Black sounded uncertain, afraid even. "Who knows what she would get up to get her revenge?"

"Stop being such a pisshat, Reg. You give Bellatrix far too much credit." Sirius said, rolling his dark eyes at his brother.

"I am just saying, Bellatrix is very unpredictable." Regulus sounded very afraid of the older witch, almost as if he expected the woman to appear out of nowhere right now and stab him in the back with a butcher knife. Knowing Bellatrix Lestrange, she probably would.

Pandora stood awkwardly around them all, those cousins who despite everything else, loved each other as much as she did her own brother—the other part of her very soul— and she thought with a half-smile that it was indeed very beautiful thing to have, to feel.

"Pandora!" Her brother called, pulling her away from her fantasy. "Come here!"

Pandora started on her feet. "Coming!"

* * *

It came without a warning.

It came so suddenly on a day Pandora wasn't totally expecting it to happen (who was she kidding here? She had expected him to ask her to marry her since the very first day that they met), but Xenophillius Lovegood asked her casually over their walk through the city if she would like to marry him. He didn't make it sound as if it was something as significantly important as most people did. He made it sound like he was asking her out to agree to see nargles or wrankspurts, not to marry him and be his partner for the rest of her days. It was all so casual, unimportant even. It was why she liked him so much.

Pandora considered it for a second. "Okay," She agreed. "How does next Wednesday sound?"

* * *

Pandora Lovegood watched the following years pass in a blissful happiness, feeling somewhat guilty of the happiness she'd felt in her heart with a husband who loved and cherished her. A lot had happened since that fateful day when she had last seen her beloved brother, when her brother had last spoken to her in a way that indicated to her that he loved her. Now, wherever they would cross paths, he would scoff in a way that made her heart ache so; in a way that made her feel like she could just die right then. He refused to reply to her silent pleas, refused to acknowledge her presence in the magical bond they had shared since they were little children. It broke her heart into pieces. But even if she had to be apart from her brother, Pandora couldn't have stayed in the life where she would never be fully accepted by anybody, even her brother, who thought her behavior was just silly childish antics. She couldn't have stayed there to be the dully ordinary daughter Abraxas had always wished for. Because that daughter, she never had been.

Lucius could never quite accept her decision to marry Xenophillius. Being Lucius, he had decided that staying away from her, punishing her for her misdeeds would surely be the way to make Pandora feel the regret of her actions and come running back to home him, where he probably thought she truly belonged.

"Pandora, there's someone here to see you."

It was Albus Dumbledore, his smile soft and his eyes poisonous as a snake. "Don't allow him in." She shivered, the magic in her blood pleading her, don't trust him, he's a bad news, don't trust him, her brother's voice seemed to say, but she couldn't be entirely certain. She hadn't heard his voice in a very long time. "I don't want that man anywhere near my house." She didn't trust that man.

* * *

Pandora Lovegood died at the tender age of twenty three giving birth to a daughter she would never get to raise, young and dead before her time. She was buried near the nephew she had never gotten to know a day after Lucius had stormed back to London in a hurry after he had heard the news, his heart buried in a regret and bitterness. Pandora had died the same way their mother had so long ago, giving birth to Pandora; sweet and angel-like Pandora who never quite fit in with them all.

Luna Lovegood was a small bundle of a child, not very unlike his own young son. Xenophiliius Lovegood held the child protectively, his eyes moving in a rather distrustful way towards him across the graveyard.

Lucius glanced at the gravestone that bore his sister's body and almost cried, his shoulders shaking with a bitterness inside his heart. 'Are you happy now?' He asked his sister, but there was no answer to be received. There was only emptiness in the void where his sister used to belong, a certain deadness in one part of his wicked, dark soul. Because the day Pandora had died, a part of him died along with her. They were connected in a way that nobody understood, and after she was gone, nothing could repair the broken part. Not even his darling wife whom he did love with all of his bitter, angry heart.

'Are you happy now?' He asked again, as if he actually thought his sister would rise back to life.

But there was only silence.

* * *

Luna's shoes had disappeared again. It was the third time this week. It was only Tuesday.

"I am just saying, we should definitely find the culprits and hang them up a tree," Theodore casually suggested.

"I say that we report them to Professor Snape," Blaise suggested.

Luna Lovegood watched them all with those wide, dreamy blue eyes, a slight smile playing on her lips. "How do you suppose you shall hang nargles? I always wanted to try catching nargles using mistletoes."

"We are not catching nargles," Draco argued.

"But they are the ones who took my shoes. Theodore said he would hang the culprits up in the tree. So, who else would he hang up?"

"Nargles didn't take your shoes."

"Of course they did," Luna argued with her cousin, eyes blinking in a protest. "Who else would?"

"I don't know, maybe your housemates."

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, language!" Blaise faked a look of horror, dramatically gasping at him.

"Fuck off, Blaise."

"Ladies and gentlemen, please refrain from fighting." Theodore interrupted with a wild grin, his deep brown hair swaying with the spring air.

"Oh, shut up, Theo!" Blaise and Draco snapped simultaneously.

"I love you guys too!" Theodore chuckled heartfully, leaning close to Luna, arms wrapped her shoulders and Luna's heart quickened, her breath getting caught in her throat the way it always did whenever the older boy was near her. Luna smiled pleasantly in the response, watching her fair-haired cousin argue back and forth with his dark-skinned friend, one of the few things she had left in this world to remind her of the mother she would never get to know, the mother she had grown up hearing so many stories about, from the warm and cheerful father who was always happy enough to indulge her, from her uncle Lucius's never-ending silence whenever his gray eyes would stop on her in the room, remembering things Luna didn't know as of yet.

Pandora Lovegood, loved and cherished always until the end of time.


End file.
